Page 12 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017
P. 12

10
 UP research,
development
and the SDGs
Willem Fourie, The Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership
The University of Pretoria’s research strategy and projects are increasingly focused on the complexities of development in Africa, and how best to translate our research endeavours into policies and practices that sustain the well-being of all.
In Africa, development planning efforts over the past decades have taught us at least one lesson: ensuring both sustainable and inclusive development is a complex endeavour. There are clearly no so-called quick fixes, and no one societal actor or group has the knowledge, experience and expertise needed to address the challenges facing most societies in Africa. The adoption of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 – a long-term transformative development vision – is testament to this sea-change.
At a global level, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) express global consensus on the complexity of development. There are at least three reasons why the SDGs should be viewed with optimism.
The SDGs, firstly, place a great deal of attention on their ‘indivisibility’;
most simply put, developmental challenges are complex and interlinked.
Access to quality education, for example, cannot be ensured without ensuring access to nutritious food, clean water and sanitation, and access to quality health care.
Their overarching emphasis on ‘leaving no-one behind’ positions this, secondly, as a moral agenda. Read in this way, the goals present a vision of development that seeks to promote distributive justice. Throughout these expansive goals the underlying assumption is that development should correct deeply unjust systems of distribution, while ensuring that these systems are reconfigured to function more sustainably.
Middle-income countries such as South Africa play an interesting role in realising this
global agenda – also beyond our borders. On the one hand, we have the moral responsibility
of sharing our expertise and resources; but on the other hand, this agenda should sharpen
our vision to recognise and assist vulnerable groups in our country. And we should not equate vulnerability only with minority groupings, even though many smaller groupings are particularly vulnerable. Many South Africans are rendered vulnerable, at least partly due to their gender, age, ethnicity and place of living, and as a result of the intersectionality of these identities.
The SDGs, thirdly, emphasise the importance of partnerships in a new way. The 2030 Agenda is the first global development agenda applicable equally to developed and developing countries. And, for the first time, development agendas also explicitly include universities, business, governments and NGOs as fully-fledged partners.
It is clear that the fates of regions and countries, and sectors within countries, are intertwined. Few topics make this as clear as climate change – greenhouse gases and their effects are not bound by national borders.
  Earthworld Architects
















































































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